Combined Unit Plan Assessment and Evaluation - 2007

Assessment Summary:	Jay's Assessment	SOE Unit Plan Summary
One the whole, a very nice unit that your students will enjoy. As you expand your brief lesson plans, be sure to consider my feedback. - fogleman Dec 9, 2007	23/25	All SOE criteria scored 3 or greater.

Unit Name: Pond Investigation
Author: Kerly
Evaluator: Jay Fogleman

This assessment is a combination of three different forms. The first is meant to provide feedback on the degree that the unit plan has incorporated the main ideas about science teaching stressed in EDC 430 this semester. The second is the URI School of Education Rubric that is used across all the teaching methods courses to make sure that the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards (RIBTs) are being addressed. The third component is a summary of my feedback for each of your unit plan components. NOTE: All criteria on the SOE Rubric must score a 3 or above in order for you to begin student teaching. Please feel free to revise your unit plan based on this feedback, and send me an email explaining your revisions.

Completeness and Organization

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
1. Is the unit plan organized in a way that makes sense?	01/(01)	Plan is well-organized
2. Are all the components present? (e.g. Purpose, Concept Map or Outline, 10 Day Lesson Sequence, 3 Long Lessons, Rationale citing how students learn, Assessment strategy.)	12/(12)	Components are complete
3. Is the writing clear, engaging, proofread, formatted, etc.	1/ (01)	Each section needs proofreading, especially the purpose page.

Content

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
4. Are the standards unpacked to indicate subtopics? Student preconceptions?	02/02)	It would be useful to cite where you found out about these misconceptions.
5. Does each lesson include learning performances, i.e. statements about what students will be able to do at the end of the lesson?	02/(02)	Objectives are expressed as actions, though some of the language is very passive: e.g. "demonstrate the ability to test water..." should be "Use test kit to test water samples for dissolved oxygen, etc."
6. Do the plans have students doing something every day? Do students experience phenomena related to the topic?	01/(01)	Yes
7. Do laboratory activities include sufficient time/instruction for students to do/learn about science practices?	01/(02)	It is not clear where the students will learn the meaning of the various water quality variables that they will test for and why they are significant. When will a student be able to explain what dissolved oxygen is and what bearing it has on water quality?

Assessment

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
8. Do the long lesson plans include questions that allow for formative assessment?	01/(02)	Questions were sometimes present.
9. Are students assessed at a variety of cognitive levels?	02/(02)	Yes.

Overall impression

10. What will students love (or at least enjoy) about this unit?
If the weather is reasonable, students will enjoy collecting data at the pond. They will also enjoy mucking out the macroinvertibrates.

11. What might be added to make this unit more engaging?
Right now, I think this unit is rushed. If you spent more time, then you could address each test in detail so that students really felt like they understood the science of their work at the pond.

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SOE Unit Plan Rubric

Student Name: Kerly
Assessor: Jay

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

The unit specifically cites national and state standards, but the state standards are limited to those pertaining to inquiry, and not content. There is not evidence in the unit plan that the unit is consistent with the school's curriculum. It is not clear how the unit will address concepts such as adaptation, populations, and ecosystems, though it might depending on how it was enacted.

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Score: 4 Evidence/ Comments:

Several of the RIBTS are addressed, including using inquiry, using a variety of assessment strategies, addressing different learning styles, and providing a variety of vivid experiences. There is little evidence for accommodations for special needs students.

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Score: 4 Evidence/ Comments:

Unit provides a compelling inquiry experience that is relevant to students in that it addresses the quality of a local water source.

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

There are brief descriptions of each lesson's concepts in the lesson sequence.

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Students' curiosity is activited in each lesson's opening, but lessons should probe and activate students' prior knowledge as well.

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Lessons seem to be developmentally appropriate, with the teacher going over instructions and providing worksheets to support small group work. There is little discussion of accommodating students special needs.

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Score: 5 Evidence/Comments:

Students use technology to engage in inquiry (water test kits) and conduct online research (organism).

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Though many lessons include links to online resources, there are several resources described that are not yet present in the unit plan.

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Score: 5 Evidence/Comments

Students are asked to apply numerous scientific ideas and tools to an authentic investigation. These ideas include dissolved oxygen, pH, etc. Students use the corresponding measurement tools to make local measurements.

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Score: 4 Evidence/Comments:

Lessons describe multiple examples of formative and summative assessment. Assessment rationale points out that students will be given frequent formative feedback during classroom activities.

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Score: 4 Evidence/Comments:

There are some word choice errors throughout the unit which could be eliminated with subsequent review. The "purpose" statement contains incomplete thoughts that should be revised. ROUND 2: Purpose revisions look good.

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Unit Plan Feedback

Purpose

• Purpose statement is a little disjointed, with sentences that need smoothing out.
• Indicates students will learn to do research, but doesn't state a question that they will try to answer.
• Does not define water quality in terms of measurable quantities.

Learning Performances

• Ss will learn about inquiry. What will they be able to do?
• Ss will be proposing hypotheses and collecting data. Will they also be drawing conclusions and making arguments?
• What skills will be taught?
• Ss need to understand adaptation, ecosystems, populations before the unit begins. @@What new concepts will be introduced?@@
• Learning performances at a variety of cognitive levels are stated.

Concept Map

• Is consistent with learning performances in terms of sharing headings.
• Does not indicate where students will learn measurement of various tests.
• There is no key to explain why different colors were used in the map.

Lesson Sequence

Lesson 01 - Intro to Unit / Creating Hypothesis

• does not describe how the class will be conducted.
• How will students' interest in the pond investigation be sparked?
• What does activity sheet look like?
• How will you assess learning performances?

Lesson 02 - First Trip to Pond / Forming A Hypothesis

• "Instructional Activities" should be "Instructional Objectives"
• Will you provide feedback on last night's homework?
• Language of objectives is passive. An objective like "convey information in written form" leads to questions such as:
  • what information?
  • in any written form?
  • what are students learning by doing this?
• What does "Writing hypothesis as whole class activity" look like? What will each student be doing?
• Students are asked to hypothesize about whether water quality varies around the world.
• Is the "Assignment" part of the lesson plan actually "Homework?" If so, then what types of answers are your expecting?

Lesson 03 - Intro to Macroinvertebrates: Importance of macroinvertebrates & using dichotomous keys

• Macroinvertibrates are introduced w/o questions that activate prior knowledge.
• In discussion of importance of macroinvertibrates, shouldn't their role be tied to students' prior knowledge of food web's?
• When will you define dichotomous key?
• When will the groups research and report on their macroinvertibrate?
• Assignment: Is there such a thing as a "long" one page essay?
• The online dichotomous key presents a sequence of either or choices to determine the organism's sensitivity. Will you adapt this to use offline? If so, how? If not, what will you use?

Lesson 04 - Enrichment Lesson – Kit Practice

• Why is this called an "enrichment" lesson. "Enrichment" is sometimes taken to mean "unnecessary."
• Will you provide feedback on last night's homework?
• The learning performances could be strengthened: Instead of "demonstrate ability to use," you should say "use a test kit to test for pH, dissolved O2, etc." Instead of "listing reasons that water testing is important," why not have them "explain why water testing is important?"
• You need to have a specific plan for how the different student groups will perform the various test.
  • You should also describe how you will arrange/manage the materials so that they are usable for more than one class period in succession.
  • If you have different groups performing different tests at the same time, then you need to be sure that your instruction supports are clear so that you don't have to bounce between groups explaining the different test procedures.
• I am not convinced that your students will understand the meaning of the different tests. Is it worth performing tests that students don't understand.
• Do you have a specific goal for the online activity? It will take at least 5 min to get the computers up an accessing that website.
• What questions will you ask as you are formatively assessing students? What feedback will you provide?
• If you are going to assign a take home test, where it is? What instructions will you provide? How will you know they do not cheat?
• Will you students be able to explain the difference between and provide examples of "Point-source" and "nonpoint-source" pollution before they do their web activity?

L05: Introducing the class to the online Discussion Area

• According to you lesson plan, only one student (at most) will access the online discussion area. I assume this area is part of the k12science website.
• Will you provide feedback on last night's homework? (Take home exam.)
• What supports/instructions will you provide for students researching their town?
• What instructions/supports will you provide for their writing and peer editing?
• How exactly will the peer editing work?

L06 & 07 Detailed Lesson #2 (For days 6&7) INQUIRY

• I agree that it is a good idea to ask some review questions to activate students' knowledge about the tests, will you also tell them their goal for the day so they know what to shoot for?
• You should pass out worksheets and review procedure before going out to the pond, since it will be hard to hold their attention outside.
• Will student groups be a different places along the pond bank?
• Will you go over the test procedures in class? Will you ask them guiding questions and let the construct their test protocols. This might be something to do the day after they first use the test kits. This would address the "design investigation" part of the RI GSE.
• Will you collect the test kits (in proper condition) before distributing the drop nets?
• What happens when they scoop up trash, crud, etc, in their nets? What will you tell them to do? Will they have rubber gloves to use or will they need them?
• How will you give them instructions in the field? Will they gather around you? Will you yell across the pond?
• I'm glad to see that you've thought about the test sequence for the macroinvertibrates. Do you think that this test will take a day? Why are you doing the nitrates tests afterward?
• I was glad to read that you hope that your student "take ownership of their work," can you think of a way to frame your summative assessment tasks so that students feel like they are making an individual contribution to a whole-class product?

L08 - Analyzing the Test Kits Results

• So your students collected their pond data, and their analysis can be captured on a worksheet? Will they think that they are actually building knowledge this way?
• What is your plan for the whole-class discussion? What questions will you ask?
• Will you make a point to address their original hypotheses? Will you have them write a conclusion using your empirical evidence?
• How will you wrap the discussion up so that students will be able to explain to your supervisor what they did, why, and what they found out?

L09 - End of Unit Test Review

• It is nice to see that you are reviewing what you did throughout the unit.
• Will you provide feedback on last night's homework?
• What materials will each group use to compile their summary of key points?
• How will you organize this so that all points are addressed?
• Will your scaffold their presentations?

!! Assessment Plan/Rationale

• You did a nice job of embedding assessments in each day's lesson.
• I think some of your assignments required a lot of grading on your part.
• Will you ever go over homework in class? Will you collect their homework assignments?

Rationale

• What about learning to do inquiry? Isn't that a purpose as well?

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